


The Shadow of a Water Lily

by Dimitri (Kiyo_Mizuki)



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Quirks (My Hero Academia), Based on a song, Besides quirks it's not that close to MHA, Bisexual Suoh Tamaki, F/M, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Nonbinary Haruhi, Romantic Subplot, Superpowers, The title makes sense later, Villain Kyoya
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-15 10:40:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28562199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiyo_Mizuki/pseuds/Dimitri
Summary: In a fanfic based loosely on the song Ambiguous by GARNiDELiA, 16-year-old Haruhi Fujioka wakes up in a strange alternate universe where she must avenge the death of her parents. Her only help is a friend she recognizes from her own time, but who seems to have no recollection of her. The darkness looming over Tokyo seems like an all too familiar shadow. All Haruhi wants is to go back to her own world, but that might require saving this one first. Is one teenager really enough to make a difference?
Relationships: Fujioka Haruhi/Hitachiin Hikaru, Fujioka Haruhi/Ootori Kyouya, Fujioka Haruhi/Suoh Tamaki, Hitachiin Hikaru & Hitachiin Kaoru, Hitachiin Kaoru/Ootori Kyouya, Nekozawa Kirimi & Nekozawa Umehito, Ootori Kyouya/Suoh Tamaki
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	The Shadow of a Water Lily

**Author's Note:**

> This is the author's first time writing for Ouran in a long time. Here, we adore comments and feedback.

Buzzing, that was all she could hear. It felt like she was surrounded by bees, far too many bees for her liking. Wait… Bees? That seemed wrong somehow. Was this some scheme of Tamaki’s to make the Host Club more “fun”? Did they come to her house and get her? Where did they take her this time? Haruhi didn’t know. How could she? She just wanted to stay asleep. Sleep was nice. Hold on a moment… Wasn’t it the weekend? The weekend was her time to take a break from studying and relax. Couldn’t they just leave her alone for once? She turned over and tried to block out the sound when a sharp pain shot through her, resonating in her head. It felt like needles piercing her scalp. She winced. Did she overdo it with the coffee?

She sighed softly, opening her eyes. It was now time to chew out senpai for bringing her here and—This was her home. She lived here all her life, yet, the room seemed different. Looking around she noticed some clear changes. It was her home, of course, but this futon was much older, the floors were dirtier (she remembered she’d cleaned before bed), and there was no sign of her father. Who would do such a thing? The twins, perhaps? A prank? That would be awful. She sat up and pushed the blanket off of her body. Standing, she decided the one thing the twins would not have moved from her home was her family’s well-kept butsudan. They had enough decency to do that, did they not? They wouldn’t disrespect her mother like that… They knew how much she meant to Haruhi, even now. She looked around for it, letting her eyes fully adjust as everything had been a bit blurred before.

Yes, Haruhi thought, there it was. She moved to view her mother’s photograph, wanting to make sure it was alright. Was mom safe? Haruhi sat before the altar and opened the doors to reveal—two photographs in matching frames. One of a beautiful dark-haired woman and the other of an androgynous redhead. She was confused, to put it simply, her head spinning. Why was her father’s picture there? She’d seen him this morning. He was fine. He had to be fine. He brought home food for dinner. He was smiling at her. They were happy. Everything was okay. What… happened?

“I…” falling silent, she didn’t know what to say, feeling tears well up in her eyes, “I’m so sorry…”

Was this real? She didn’t know what to believe, who to call, who to talk to. Her crazy friends weren’t exactly the best at handling serious problems. She was alone in this, she assumed, but what would it hurt to call someone? Reaching for her phone which she always kept at her bedside she prepared to make the tough decision ahead of her: call her idiot senpai or call those troublesome twins. She clicked her contacts and prepared to click one of those names but saw her contacts were nearly empty. There was Mom, Dad, and Nekozawa’s Dark Magic Emporium…?

With that, it sunk in. This was real. Even the hosts wouldn’t go this far as to delete her contacts. Noting the two pictures she had seen, she figured it would be no luck calling the first two contacts. That left, she gulped, the third number. Now, she was close with Nekozawa in a peer-to-peer kind of way, he wasn’t awful, but she didn’t know if he was the one she wanted to call whilst having what might be an honest-to-God breakdown. But, she remembered, this was all she had to work with. Taking a deep breath, she hit the call button before she had time to overthink it.

Ring… Ring… Ring… 

“Hello, you’ve reached the Nekozawa Family’s Dark Magic Emporium, this is Umehito speaking, whatever might I be able to do for you on this fine day…?” a familiar deep voice spoke into the phone

Haruhi latched onto that sound like it was all she had left to hold onto in this world. She didn’t say a word, she simply listened to that comforting sound, the gentle voice of her, actually very dark seeming, upperclassman. Was this all really happening, she found herself asking that again. She was glad he seemed to sound the same at least. She began to appreciate him far more than she had.

“Um… hello? Are you there?” Nekozawa asked in a slightly confused tone causing Haruhi to leave her anxiety-provoking thoughts behind for a moment.

“Nekozawa-senpai? It’s me, Haruhi. Haruhi Fujioka. Is there any way I can talk to you,” she paused for a moment before continuing, “Maybe... if you don’t mind… in person?”

She was hopeful that he’d agree to this. She wanted to see that cloaked figure of his. She wanted to confirm that even in this nightmare of a place she’d woken up in, something was still like she recalled it being in her own reality. She needed him much more than he was aware of. She needed to see him in person, confirm he was real and physical.

No sound came out of the phone for a moment. Presumably, Nekozawa was thinking over her question, formulating his answer. Please agree, please agree, please agree. Haruhi didn’t want to lose this chance, what she saw as her only chance to reassure herself. She was about to lose hope when she heard him cough softly and speak up awkwardly.

“I mean… sure,” he said, “Come by the shop. You have the address.”

She was about to ask him more over the phone. Where was the shop? How could she get there? There were so many questions running through her mind but she heard a sound on his end, shuffling and then his voice once more.

“I have to take another call. I will see you then, Fujioka?”

She stuttered out a soft “yes” before she heard the beep that signaled the call had ended. Sighing, she got to her feet, still holding the phone tightly. Go to Nekozawa’s shop. She had to. She thought maybe her phone would hold more information. She looked at the contact. Oh! An address! Well, it was a start. She just hoped she could find her way to the shop.

Inhale and exhale...

Gathering her bag and changing into some of the clothes she could find in the closet, she found herself looking much more masculine than usual. Was it her hair? Or this jacket? She didn’t know and she didn’t have time to think about it. Gripping her phone, she walked out, locked the door, and set off on her journey to Nekozawa’s. Anxious and tired, she was on her not-so-merry way.

It took twenty minutes to locate the emporium. 3 to get into any mappable area, 2 to remember the phone had a map app, 1 to enter the address, 4 to get to anywhere remotely near the shop, and the other 10 to travel until she was on the concrete steps of a dark building with a sign reading “Nekozawa Emporium.” She looked at the building. Well, no doubt she was in the right place. It was a dark, Victorian-esque building. She pushed the door open and saw a young man with medium-length blond hair, the top section of it tied back into a small ponytail above the rest of it. He wore all black, his apron a lighter tone of the color.

“Ah, Fujioka. Welcome,” Nekozawa greeted from behind the counter, setting down something he was holding to come over to her.

Oh, Haruhi did not enjoy the differences. Nekozawa was not in a cloak. He was still wearing dark colors and modest clothing but his hair was brightly blond, just like Tamaki-senpai’s. She couldn’t help but stare at him. He looked so… princely like this. Just as he had when they were training him to face the light. She was snapped out of her thoughts by his voice calling to her again.

“Fujioka? Um… What did you need to talk about…?”

He seemed worried about her. She took a deep breath and walked up to him, looking at him with hopeful sparkling eyes. Please, Nekozawa-senpai. Gathering her words, she tried to explain herself to him, everything that happened, all these strange changes to her life. In the end, though, she only got a sentence out (“What happened to my parents? I feel like I’m in a different world”) before he shushed her by raising a hand.

“Fujioka, stand there a moment,” Nekozawa told her as he walked to the door of the shop, opened the door, and switched the sign to read, in big red letters C-L-O-S-E-D, closed, “You were saying?”

“Y-you believe me…? I thought for sure you’d say I was crazy, Nekozawa-senpai…”

“That’s one of the reasons I believe you, Fujioka.”

“What is?” she asked, looking up at him and tilting her head to the side in confusion.

“You use your full first name, you call me senpai, the Fujioka of this world is nothing like that… he’s more distant, and he certainly doesn’t think of me as a senpai of any kind. Why do you call me that?”

“Because you’re my upperclassman… at Ouran Academy.”

“Oh? I’ve never been to high school, well, not with others. Kirochka and I were homeschooled all our lives, aha,” Nekozawa told Haruhi, referring to his younger sister by her Russian name.

“Oh…” Haruhi paused to take in this information, “What do I do? You know about magic, what happened? I normally wouldn’t believe this, but it’s getting kind of hard to ignore.”

“Ah, I know some. Well, let’s see...” Nekozawa rested a hand on his chin as he thought for a moment, “Perhaps a rift of some kind has caused you to enter a parallel world to your own? This would, of course, mean that the Fujioka of our world is now wherever you came from.”

“I see, that’s,” Haruhi looked a bit shaken as she spoke, “Uh... Can you just call me Haruhi, senpai?”

“Haruhi, then. That’s odd for me to say. How about you call me Umehito then, fair trade?”

“Alright, Umehito-senpai,” Haruhi smiled at this version of her upperclassmen as she spoke. 

“No, no senpai. U-me-hi-to. Umehito.”

“U-Umehito!”

“Good now lets—”

The bell above the door jingled indicating that someone else was entering the shop despite the sign clearly marking the business as closed. Umehito sighed but his expression made it clear that he was familiar with the person. It seemed as though he had expected this to happen.

“What do you want?” Umehito asked before facing the person, “Did the sign not say closed?”

“What? That never stopped me before,” a ginger-haired boy answered with a slight smirk.

“Ah, that’s true… Hikaru, right?” Umehito questioned, squinting at him slightly.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever… Who’s the dude?”

Hikaru’s eyes scanned Haruhi as if checking her over for anything dangerous.

“This is Fujioka Haruhi, another customer of ours. What did you need, _Hikaru_?” Umehito answered.

“Right,” Hikaru spoke slowly, returning his attention from Haruhi to Nekozawa, “So? The _thing_?”

Nekozawa sighed, but before he could give Hikaru any kind of update Haruhi blurted out the boy’s name in a frantic way. She couldn’t help it, that was her _friend_. She missed him and even if this wasn’t her version of him, she was glad to see another familiar face.

“Hikaru!!!"

“What—Do I _know_ you? Who said you could call me by my first name, huh?”

“Well…” Haruhi fell silent as she didn’t know how to explain her circumstances to him.

“Ugh, whatever, just leave me alone.”

Umehito was about to hand Hikaru a bag of something but the ginger snatched it from him in one motion before turning to leave. He didn’t need to stay there any longer.

“Hah, thanks Nekozawa.”

Umehito began to reply, “Oh, of course—”

Before the sentence was finished, Hikaru left the shop, the closing door signaling this. Umehito sighed and turned back to Haruhi who was staring at the closed door with a look in her eyes. Umehito understood at least partially. She looked at her senpai and then at the door and she ran. She ran towards Hikaru and didn’t look back. Catching up with him, she tugged at his arm.

“Hikaru, please talk to me…” she managed to say, unsure of his response but needing to not lose him.


End file.
